Audit finds Los Angeles City Planning Department cast in a time warp of past practices, old procedures, and outdated technology, to the detriment of its overall core mission to establish a vision and strategy for responsible and balanced growth.
Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick published her audit of the Planning Department on October 31, 2005, with the following cover letter to city officials.
Dear Mayor Villaraigosa, City Attorney Delgadillo, Councilmembers:
No government entity is more responsible for establishing the look and feel of Los Angeles than the Department of City Planning. In 1991 the City Commissioned the Zucker Report, which was a wide ranging and comprehensive analysis of the City’s planning functions. In conducting my audit of the Planning Department we worked with Zucker Systems in an effort to benefit from their expertise and institutional knowledge.
My audit of City Planning found an agency cast in a time warp of past practices, old procedures, and outdated technology. A successful planning department is one which has great vision and embraces bold ideas for the future of the City. Unfortunately, my review found a Department struggling with individual case processing, mired in backlogs, often in violation of state law.
First and foremost the City of Los Angeles is a real estate town, and in recent years has seen housing construction reach a fever pitch fueled by low interest rates. In the last three years, building permits for housing units have more than doubled. To try and handle this increased workload, the Planning Department had to reallocate staff to the detriment of its overall core mission to establish a vision and strategy for responsible and balanced growth.
Of the over 90 audits conducted since I became Controller, there is not a more striking example of an organization stuck in the past than this one. If Los Angeles, the second largest city in America, is truly going to embrace the 21st Century and become the state of the art, cutting edge leader it can and should be, the Planning Department must move dramatically forward.
With a new Mayor at the helm and a search for a Planning Director well underway, we have an opportunity to bring the City’s planning operations into a new era. This audit is an important tool in the selection of a new Director and will serve as a road map in reshaping and redirecting this core function of our City. It is imperative that the Department also receive the proper resources so it can fulfill its duties in a responsive, fair, and timely manner.
Sincerely,
Laura N. Chick
City Controller
